Department for Transport

Electric Vehicles

Lord Hunt of Chesterton: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have a target for the proportion of new motor vehicles that will be electrically powered by (1) 2020, and (2) 2025; what investments they are making to ensure that a high proportion of those vehicles are manufactured in the UK; and what incentives, if any, they plan to introduce for such vehicles, such as through reducing motor vehicle tax and congestion charges.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: The Government has a commitment that almost all cars and vans will be zero emission by 2050. This means all new cars should be zero emission by 2040. We have not set interim targets, but market penetration of ultra low emission vehicles (ULEVs) has doubled in the last year to nearly 2% of new vehicle sales. We will invest over £600 million during this Parliament to support the uptake and manufacture of ULEVs in the UK - including over £400m for the Plug in Car Grant that offers up to £4,500 off the price of eligible cars. ULEVs also benefit from favourable vehicle excise duty, company car tax, and enhanced capital allowances. They are exempt from Transport for London’s congestion charge and can attract other local benefits. The £40m Go Ultra Low cities scheme is supporting a range of local measure such as free parking and use of bus lanes that are designed to drive take up of ULEVs. £82m support was provided during the period 2010 to 2015 for industry-led collaborative research and development, with a similar programme of support underway for the period 2015-20. In addition the Government and industry are investing around £1bn over 10 years in the Advanced Propulsion Centre to develop, commercialise and enable the manufacture of advanced propulsion technologies in the UK.

Department for Education

Arts: Qualifications

Lord Freyberg: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many pupils in England at the end of KS4 had at least one full-course GCSE, GCSE double award, Cambridge International Certificate or AS level entry in Applied Art and Design, Art and Design, Drama, media, film or TV, Music, Dance, Performing Arts, or Design and Technology in (1) 2009–10, (2) 2010–11, (3) 2011–12, (4) 2012–13, (5) 2013–14, and (6) 2014–15.

Lord Freyberg: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many pupils in England at the end of KS4 had a full-course GCSE, GCSE double award, Cambridge International Certificate or AS level entry in each of the following subjects (1) Applied Art and Design, (2) Art and Design, (3) Drama, (4) media, film, or TV, (5) Music, (6) Dance, (7) Performing Arts, and (8) Design and Technology, in (a) 2009–10, (b) 2010–11, (c) 2011–12, (d) 2012–13, (e) 2013–14, and (f) 2014–15.

Lord Nash: The information requested is provided in the following tables:Pupils with one or more entry for GCSE[1] (including GCSE double awards, level 1/2 certificates, and AS levels) in selected subjects.Years: 2009/10 to 2014/15 (Revised)[2]Coverage: England  Year2009/102010/1142011/122012/132013/1452014/155Pupils at end of key stage 4 in all schools[3]639,263627,093620,617632,397618,437611,081Pupils with at least one GCSE[2] entry in arts subjects (plus D&T)433,750409,914395,137393,740401,066400,972Pupils at end of key stage 4 in state funded schools[6]578,060566,927561,308571,325558,432553,469Pupils with at least one GCSE[2] entry in arts subjects (plus D&T)402,480378,483364,665363,087371,381371,362Source: Key stage 4 attainment data.1. Includes GCSE (full course), GCSE double awards, level 1/2 certificates, and AS levels.2. For the purposes of these figures arts subjects include Applied Art and Design, Art and Design, Drama, Media/Film/TV, Music, Dance, Performing Arts and Design and Technology. Does not include History of Art and Creative Writing. Dance entries are included in the number of entries to Physical Education in the Statistical First Release (See Subject Time Series Tables). There were 11,981 entries to GCSE Dance in 2015.2. 2014/15 figures are revised, all other years are final.3. Includes pupils in state-funded schools, independent schools, independent special schools, non-maintained special schools, hospital schools and alternative provision including academy and free school alternative provision and pupil referral units.4. From 2010/11, Discounting has been applied where pupils have taken the same subject more than once and only one entry is counted in these circumstances.5. In 2013/14, an early entry policy, where only the first attempt at a qualification is counted in performance measures, was introduced for English Baccalaureate subjects. In 2014/15, the early entry policy was extended to all subjects.6. State-funded schools include academies, free schools, city technology colleges, and state-funded special schools. Since September 2013, general further education colleges and sixth-form colleges have been able to enrol 14- to 16-year-olds. 2014/15 is the first year in which colleges have pupils at the end of key stage 4; this year, entries and achievements for these pupils are included in figures as state-funded schools. State-funded schools exclude independent schools, independent special schools, non-maintained special schools, hospital schools, pupil referral units and alternative provision. Alternative provision includes academy and free school alternative provision. Time series of entries in GCSE[1] (including GCSE double awards, level 1/2 certificates, and AS levels) in selected subjects.Years: 2009/10 to 2014/15 (Revised)[2]Coverage: England[4]SubjectYear2009/10[3][4]2010/11[4]2011/122012/132013/14[5]2014/15[5]Applied Art and Design01,4761,1711,051855823Art & Design169,743162,832159,481164,932171,431176,363Drama80,98974,89670,52369,86371,24571,113Media/Film/TV58,88255,85652,63951,21352,48552,152Music45,79943,56641,21741,69042,83244,093Dance[1]15,37413,24912,03411,61411,95812,014Performing Arts1,8543,7703,3613,9314,9176,038Design and Technology267,628239,002223,920205,888201,359194,722Total number of entries in selected ubjects 640,269594,647564,346550,182557,082557,318Source: key stage 4 attainment data (Revised)1. Includes GCSE (full course), GCSE double awards, level 1/2 certificates, and AS levels.2. 2014/15 figures are revised, all other years are final.3. Includes pupils in state-funded schools, independent schools, independent special schools, non-maintained special schools, hospital schools and alternative provision including academy and free school alternative provision and pupil referral units. Since September 2013, general further education colleges and sixth-form colleges have been able to enrol 14- to 16-year-olds. 2014/15 is the first year in which colleges have pupils at the end of key stage 4; this year, entries and achievements for these pupils are included in figures as state-funded schools.4. Prior to 2010/11, no discounting was applied and all entries and achievements were included. From 2010/11, Discounting has been applied where pupils have taken the same subject more than once and only one entry is counted in these circumstances.5. In 2013/14, an early entry policy, where only the first attempt at a qualification is counted in performance measures, was introduced for English Baccalaureate subjects. In 2014/15, the early entry policy was extended to all subjects. 



Pupils with one or more GCSE entry
(PDF Document, 11.16 KB)




Time Series of GCSE entries
(PDF Document, 13.88 KB)

Department for Work and Pensions

British Nationals Abroad: EU Countries

The Lord Bishop of Leeds: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the financial costs to other EU member states of the social security benefits received by UK nationals resident in those member states.

Lord Freud: We do not hold this information.

Attorney General

Trials

Lord Blencathra: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Keen of Elie on 19 February (HL5998), whether there are any circumstances under which the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) may alter the speed at which video evidence is shown in court, and if so, whether the CPS is obliged to inform the court that the speed of the video evidence has been altered.

Lord Keen of Elie: Video evidence is routinely examined in court during criminal trials either frame by frame or at different speeds in order to aid the court’s understanding. In the case of image stills, time stamps can be used to indicate the passage of time between images. Both defence and prosecution lawyers are under a professional duty not to mislead the court.

Mark Pearson

Lord Blencathra: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Keen of Elie on 19 February (HL5998) regarding the case of Mark Pearson, who in the Crown Prosecution Service made the decision to present to the court a video that was run at half the normal speed.

Lord Keen of Elie: In the case concerned there was no video evidence. The police created a disc containing a series of still images with gaps of around a second in time. The timing of each image was clearly shown. The disc was served on the defence but was not played in court by the prosecution. The defence adduced their own disc as part of their case. The prosecution did not rely on the still images because at the trial the identification of the defendant was not in issue.

Prosecutions: Northern Ireland

Lord Laird: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have an agreement or understanding with Sinn Fein (1) not to bring to court republicans on charges relating to tax fraud in South Armagh, or (2) to bring to court members of the Army who were on duty on Bloody Sunday and who now live in Great Britain.

Lord Keen of Elie: The government does not have any such agreements or understandings in place with Sinn Fein.